Senate passes FY2025 budget adjustment and completes several floor actions, refers bills and resolution to committees

The Vermont Senate passed H.141, an act relating to fiscal year 2025 budget adjustments, and completed multiple floor actions including a committee reassignment, introductions and referrals, and a brief recess to announce a committee of conference.

Senators voted on the third reading of H.141 and recorded the outcome on the floor as passing by voice vote: “The ayes do have it and you have passed the bill.” Following passage, Senator from Chittenden Central moved that the Senate’s actions on H.141 be messaged to the House forthwith. The motion to suspend the rules and message the action immediately was adopted by voice vote and the floor recorded that H.141 was messaged to the House.

Earlier on the floor, the Senator from Windsor moved that the Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs be relieved of S.71, an act relating to consumer data privacy and online surveillance, and that the bill be committed to the Committee on Institutions and Technology. The Senate took the voice vote and the chair announced, “The ayes have it. The bill has been committed to the committee on institutions.”

The Senate also introduced and referred a joint resolution and three bills. JRS 15, a joint resolution supporting Vermont’s transgender and non-binary community and declaring the state’s commitment to fighting discrimination, was read on the floor and, at the chair’s discretion, was treated as a bill and referred to the Committee on Judiciary. The floor also recorded first readings and referrals for S.90 (an act relating to employee privacy protections) to the Committee on Economic Development, S.91 (an act relating to tenant rights) to the Committee on Economic Development, and S.92 (an act relating to retirement allowance for interim educators) to the Committee on Government Operations; S.92 was introduced by Senators Perchlik and Watson.

At the close of regular business, the Senate accepted a motion from Senator from Chittenden Central to recess until 4:00 p.m. for the limited purpose of announcing the H.141 committee of conference with the House; the Senate will reconvene briefly at that time for the announcement and then adjourn until 1:00 p.m. the following day. The motion to recess was approved by voice vote.

The transcript records voice votes for the floor actions cited above and does not list individual roll-call tallies for the floor voice votes.